If you want to get from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to downtown today without renting a car or driving your own, you’ve got two options: Hop on a Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky bus or take a cab.

A train that would whisk visitors from the airport to downtown has long been on the region’s wish list, but Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune and Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments executive director Mark Policinski believe they have a way to pay for it.

All it will take is an act of Congress.

Most everyone who flies on a commercial airplane today pays a passenger fare charge to fly out of an airport for each leg of their destination. Airports can use the revenue to make improvements to their facilities.

Portune hopes to get Congress to allow airports like CVG to spend such funds on capital projects that directly benefit airports. A train making it easier to get in and out of CVG would qualify, he said.

A $3 charge per ticket would cover the annual debt service on 30-year bonds and generate $400 million “that gets you a long way towards building a new rail connection from downtown to the airport,” Portune said. “There’s growing awareness of that as an opportunity.”

CVG’s board would have to approve such a use of funds, Portune said on Monday, when he brought up the idea at a meeting of the Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District. He wants to get model legislation drafted to send to Congress.